Thank you so much for all of you that took part in the wobbler, be that running, supporting or marshalling. It was testament to all of you that we experienced another fantastic race and saw so many of you back at the club. Thank you to those of you that filled out the questionnaire on the entry form – let’s just say there is clear demand for a race series, I hope we’ll be able to achieve that in 2016. For further details and to keep in touch please see details at the base of this post. I will also add those to the mailing list that wanted to be kept informed.
RD’s report:
Wednesday evening saw the third running of ‘Robbie Webster’s Wobbler’ memorial race. This year was tinged with sadness and shock at the passing of another Helsby club member Mike McShane who unexpectedly passed away the day before. A minutes silence was respected at the start of the race and our thoughts are with Mike’s family and friends during what must be a terribly shocking and sad period.
Spectacular weather blessed the 108 competitors that toed the line for the fiendish climbs and beautiful trails Frodsham hill has to offer. The race stats slightly extended to 5.3 miles and 1220ft of ascent due to the popularity of the event and the narrow first climb.
It was fantastic to see people from so many of the local clubs. We had runners from all of the following: Ambleside AC, Buckley Runners, Helsby RC, Penny Lane Striders, West Cheshire AC, Delamere Spartans, Spectrum Striders, Warrington AC, Tattenhall, Knutsford Tri and Northwich RC – simply fantastic and I saw more than a few inter club rivalries ignited J
Talented Helsby Fell runner Max Wainwright led from the start and held on to take the win and new course record despite relentless pursuit from the Buckley’s formidable Jez Brown (Vet 40 winner). Outstanding performances from veterans Tim knight (V50) and Andy Robinson (V60) saw them take the title – the V50 category appearing the hardest fought with just 9 seconds separating first and second and exactly 3 minutes separating the top 11.
The ladies title was equally hard fought with a superb run by Victoria Walls of Spectrum Striders, hotly pursued by Carolyn Stamper-Clark of Delamere Spartans and the formidable Karen Forster who took the Ladies Vet 50 category and overall Vets trophy. The Vet 40 title went to Suzanne Eccleston and Vet 60 to Steph Charman.
Helsby Men retained the team trophy but in a battle separated by just 7 seconds Spectrum snatch the spoils from Helsby in the Ladies team event.
Sadly we had a number of the markers removed/ taken down and some posts stolen. I marked the course three times with the last round being just two hours before the start of the race, yet a number of key markers were still removed. I’m afraid I don’t understand the mentality. I sincerely hope it didn’t impede your enjoyment of the race and nobody got lost so I was relieved!
Back at the club house Mike Searle gave a touching and humorous eulogy for Mike McShane before prize giving, the odd beer or two back and homemade cakes. The now famous Helsby RC cake bakers did us proud as did the generosity of the runners in donating over £120 to the Red Cross Nepal Earthquake appeal.
We would especially like to thank the Forest Hills Hotel for generously allowing use of their car park and facilities. This is a local, community run event and without support from Forest Hills, the marshals and the cake bakers, this race wouldn’t be a success and there certainly wouldn’t have been over 100 extra smiling faces in Frodsham that evening.
Results:
The full results are out: https://helsbyrunningclub.wordpress.com/results-and-reports/
Photos:
We’ll be putting up all photos we have on the run Helsby flickr stream (https://www.flickr.com/photos/runhelsby ) and Mick Charman has already got a set up here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/helsby/sets/72157653612534728 so if you have any from the event please contact Steve Riley or me to get details of how you can upload or pass them to us so we can.
See you next year for a wobble!
Chris
Feedback:
I always like to improve on things so I’d love to hear any feedback you have on the event, if anything doesn’t work, what really does, would you return, etc. Please do get in touch, it’s all appreciated (positive or negative). I had some great feedback from the registration team so we’ve got plans for a few changes there next year.
Keeping up to date:
I’ve set up a mailing list which can be joined from this page: https://helsbyrunningclub.wordpress.com/2015-robbie-websters-wobbler/ this will be used to keep people informed of the Wobbler and assuming I get it organised, the 2016 trail series which got a resounding ‘yes’ when I asked for interest on the entry forms – thank you very much for taking the time to answer that for me.
I’ll also keep the Blog page up to date just as soon as we set the dates. I’m thinking the first Wednesday of each month for the trail series starting in June, but watch this space.
Helsby running club 